meshO Manager

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Controls and radio controls ​

Audience: Event organisers setting up timing points.

In Manager a control carries one or more control codes. A radio control is one whose punches also report back live during the event, so they surface on Spectator, Leaderboard and Commentary as runners pass through.

This page covers how Manager models controls, how radio controls work, the special Start / Finish / Check controls, and how to create, edit, and manage all of them. As with classes and courses, most events get their controls from an import — see Importing event data — so usually you're reviewing and marking radios rather than entering controls from scratch.

Two kinds of control ​

Manager models normal controls and the special controls — Start, Finish, and Check — differently:

  • Normal controls carry one or more control codes and are matched to a punch by code.
  • Start, Finish and Check controls carry no code of their own in Manager. They anchor courses by position for card downloads. There are event level codes, which are used to resolve these special controls when triggered as radios punches — see Start, Finish and Check codes below.

The split matters because a Start, Finish or Check punch from a download carries no course code — only the fact that it happened. Radio punches from Start, Finish and Check only carry a code — so Manager has to map that code to the special meaning. Everything else is treated as a normal control along the course.

Note: Manager accepts normal control codes from 31 to 511 — 1–30 are reserved for SportIdent's special stations.

The Controls page ​

Navigate to Controls in the Event Data section of the side menu.

The table shows one row per control:

  • Control — the control name. Click it (or the pencil icon) to open the Edit Control dialog.
  • Control Codes — the code(s) this control uses. Start, Finish and Check controls show None configured here, since they carry no code. If a replacement code has been set, the original code appears struck through with the replacement beside it.
  • Is Radio — a toggle showing whether this control reports radio punches. Not applicable to Start / Finish / Check.
  • Radio Name — an optional custom display name used on Leaderboard and Commentary.
  • Time Offset — any clock correction applied to this control's punches, shown as +HH:MM:SS.
  • Number of Courses — how many courses use this control. Click to see the list.

Filter the table with Search Control (by name) or the Is Radio filter (Yes / No).

The Actions menu (top right) has:

  • Add control — create a new control (see below).
  • Leg distances — open the shared leg-distances editor (the same editor reachable from the Courses page; see Leg distances).

Creating a control by hand ​

Click Actions → Add control. The Add Control dialog opens.

Fields:

  • Type — required. Choose Normal, Start, or Finish. (There's no Check option — every event is seeded with a single, permanent Check control.)
  • Control Code — shown for Normal controls only, and required. Enter a number from 31 to 511. Manager rejects a code that's out of range or already used by another control.

Manager names the control automatically: a Normal control takes its code as its name, while Start / Finish controls auto-number — Start, then Start 2, Start 3, … as you add more. To give a Start or Finish a custom name, rename it afterwards on the Edit Control dialog's Name tab.

Click Add.

Tip: You rarely need to add Normal controls here first — when you build a course on the Courses page you can type a control code straight into the course and Manager creates the control if it doesn't exist yet. Use Add control mainly to add an extra Start or Finish for a split-start or two-finish event.

Editing a control ​

Click a control's name (or its pencil icon) to open the Edit Control dialog. Which tabs appear depends on the control's type:

Control typeTabs available
NormalRadio, Replacement, Time Offset, Faulty
Start / FinishName, Time Offset
CheckTime Offset only

Name (Start / Finish only) ​

Rename the control. Names must be unique within their type (no two Starts can share a name). Normal controls aren't renamed here — they're identified by their code.

Radio (Normal only) ​

This is where you make a control a radio control:

  • Is Radio — toggle on to have this control's punches reported live. Radio controls are shown on Leaderboard and Commentary screens for classes that use them.
  • Radio Name — an optional friendly display name (e.g. "Spectator control", "Last control"). Leave it blank to use the control's code.

You can also flip Is Radio directly from the toggle in the Is Radio column on the Controls page, without opening the dialog.

Tip: With Auto-mark controls as radio controls enabled (the default — see Auto-marking controls as radios below), you often don't need to set Is Radio by hand at all: the first live punch from a control flips it on for you.

Replacement (Normal only) ​

  • Replacement Code — Alternative code if this control was replaced during the event with a station using a different number. See Renumbered or swapped controls below.

Time Offset ​

  • A cumulative correction applied to every punch recorded against this control — card downloads and radio punches alike. Set a sign (+ or −) and enter Hours, Minutes, and Seconds (up to 24 hours). Reset offset clears it.
  • Use this when a control's internal clock has drifted, was set incorrectly, or wasn't adjusted for daylight saving. The correction is applied retrospectively, so fixing the offset after downloads have come in re-times the affected punches.

Faulty (Normal only) ​

  • Control is faulty (non-functional) — toggle on when a control's unit failed during the event and some competitors couldn't punch it. The control is then ignored everywhere: its code is dropped from every course's requirements (so missing it is never a Missing Punch), and any punch for it is ignored — never scored, split, counted as an extra, or shown as a radio passing. This holds across all courses, and for downloads already processed as well as those still to come.
  • Marking a control faulty clears its replacement code and time offset (those tabs are disabled while it's on) — a faulty control is ignored outright, so neither applies.
  • Use this when a unit dies mid-event and isn't replaced. If you instead swapped in a working unit with a different code, set a Replacement instead, so punches on the new code still count.

Marking radio controls and setting their priority ​

Why mark radio controls — and why prioritise them ​

More radios is better. There's no downside to having lots of radio controls on a course — the more points a course reports from, the more Manager has to work with:

  • Better predictions. With more splits coming in, Manager has more data to project finish times and standings, so its live predictions are sharper.
  • A better view for commentators. Each extra radio is another vantage point on the race. Commentators can see how competitors are doing through the course and how the race is unfolding, rather than guessing between sparse splits.
  • Safety. Frequent radio reports mean you can see who's out on the course and roughly where they are — useful for spotting a competitor who's overdue or has stopped reporting.

So mark every control that has a radio station on it (or let Manager do it for you — see Auto-marking controls as radios).

Priority is about the screen, not the data. Marking lots of radios doesn't crowd your displays, because the priority is a separate decision. Leaderboard screens have limited room, so in practice you only want about 3 or 4 radio controls shown per course — maybe a few more for elite courses where there's more interest. The priority is how you choose which of your many radios win that limited space, rather than leaving it to Manager. Capture everything live, then promote just the most important controls (arena passes, run-ins, the last control) to High and hide the rest.

How to do it ​

Making a control a radio control is a two-step idea:

  1. Mark the control as a radio — the Is Radio flag on the control (above). This tells Manager the control reports live punches. Manager can also set this for you automatically as punches arrive — see Auto-marking controls as radios below.
  2. Choose how each class displays it — done per class on the Classes page, in the Radio Controls (including priority) column.

A radio control only appears for the classes whose courses actually pass through it. On the Classes page each such control shows as a chip with a priority selector:

  • High
  • Medium
  • Low
  • Hide

Leaderboard has a Max Radio Controls setting that limits how many radio controls a screen shows at once, so the priority decides which radio controls win that space for a given class. Set the spectator-facing controls (arena passes, run-ins) to High, and Hide any you don't want on screen for that class.

For relay classes the radio controls are grouped by leg (Leg 1, Leg 2, …), so you can give each leg its own set of live splits.

Note: A normal control can be shared by many courses and classes. Marking it as a radio once makes it available everywhere it's used — you then tune its priority class by class.

Auto-marking controls as radios ​

You usually don't have to tick Is Radio for each control by hand. By default Manager marks a control as a radio control automatically the first time a live radio punch arrives for it — so as your radio stations come online during the event, the controls they sit on light up on their own and start appearing in live tracking, Leaderboard and Commentary.

This is controlled by an event-level setting. Open the event dashboard, click Edit (event details), and go to the Radio Controls tab:

  • Auto-mark controls as radio controls — on by default. When a radio punch arrives for a course control, automatically mark that control as a radio control so it appears in live tracking, Leaderboard, Commentary, etc — no need to tick each one by hand.

Turn it off if you'd rather choose your radio controls deliberately — for example when some controls report punches that you don't want surfaced as live splits. With it off, only the controls you've marked Is Radio yourself are treated as radios. Only normal course controls are auto-marked; Start, Finish and Check punches never trigger it (those are resolved by the event's code lists — see Start, Finish and Check codes below).

Start, Finish and Check codes ​

Because Start, Finish and Check radio punches just carry a code (no special meaning), Manager needs to know which codes represent these special punches. These lists live on the event itself, not on the controls.

Why these mappings matter ​

Downloads and radio punches tell Manager about Start, Finish and Check in opposite ways:

  • A card download records the special meaning — the card itself knows this punch was a Start, a Finish or a Check — but doesn't need a course code to convey it. Manager reads the meaning straight off the card.
  • A radio punch carries only the code the unit was programmed with, never the special meaning. A radio punch of code 1 is just "code 1" on the wire — Manager has no way to know that's your Start unit unless you tell it.

That's the whole reason these lists exist. Event operators program their Start, Finish and Check units with a code of their choosing — for example Start = 1, Finish = 2, Check = 3 — using SportIdent's SiConfig+ application. Any code from 1 to 13 can be used for these special stations. Whatever you chose there, you must mirror here so Manager can translate the radio punches.

Important: If your Start unit is programmed as code 1 and it sends radio punches, you must list 1 under Start Codes. Otherwise Manager sees a radio punch of code 1, finds it in none of the three lists, and treats it as a regular control along the course — runners appear to "punch" a phantom control instead of starting. Getting these mappings right is what makes live Start/Finish/Check work.

Setting the codes ​

Open the event dashboard, click Edit (event details), and go to the Radio Controls tab. You'll find three fields:

  • Start Codes
  • Finish Codes
  • Check Codes

Enter comma-separated codes in each (you can list more than one per field if you run several units with different codes). As the dialog explains: Radio Control punches are only transmitted with the control code, not a "Start", "Finish" or "Check" punch. Configure the codes that you use for these units so that meshO Manager can interpret the radio punches correctly. Any other codes are treated as regular radio controls along the course.

In other words: a radio punch arriving on a code listed under Finish Codes is read as a finish punch; a code that's in none of the three lists is read as a normal control along the course. Card downloads carry the special meaning directly, so these lists matter only for radio punches.

Multiple Start, Finish and Check controls ​

An event can have more than one Start or Finish — for split starts, a separate finish chute, multiple Check stations, and so on. Each course independently picks its Start and Finish in the Edit Course dialog, so a map with two starts imports as courses anchored at different Start controls. The Start / Finish dropdowns there list exactly the Start and Finish controls you've defined.

When you add a Start or Finish, the Add Control dialog auto-numbers it (Start, Start 2, Start 3, …); you can rename it afterwards on the Edit Control dialog's Name tab. You can't delete the last Start or Finish — an event must always keep at least one of each — and you can't delete a Start or Finish that a course still uses until those courses are reassigned. The Check control is permanent: it can't be renamed or deleted, only given a time offset.

How controls relate to courses and classes ​

  • Courses anchor to a Start and a Finish (by identity, not code) and hold an ordered list of the normal control codes in between. A normal control is shown as used by a course when one of its codes appears in that course. See Classes and courses.
  • Classes inherit their radio controls from the courses assigned to them: a class shows the radio controls that lie on its course(s), and you set the display priority per class.
  • Shared controls are the norm — the same physical control (and the same code) is reused across many courses, and Manager keeps a single control for it. The Number of Courses column shows how widely a control is used.

Renumbered or swapped controls ​

If a control's physical station is swapped mid-event for one with a different number — or the wrong unit was put out — you don't have to edit every course. Instead, open the control's Replacement tab and set a Replacement Code. Manager then accepts punches on the new code as if they were on the original, so existing courses and results stay valid. The Controls page shows the original code struck through with the replacement beside it.

Leg distances ​

Distances between consecutive controls are kept in one shared bank for the whole event, keyed by the identity of the two controls. Edit them from Actions → Leg distances on the Controls page (the same editor is on the Courses page). Editing the distance for a leg once updates every course that traverses it. See Leg distances for the full explanation.